Third Sunday of Easter

Revelation 5

May 4, 2025

The main theme throughout the three readings today from Acts, Revelation, and John, is “mercy.” Whose mercy? God’s mercy!

And see, we really don’t get God’s mercy because we still think like human beings because, last I checked, we are all human beings. We still think grace and mercy are earned. Now we may not say it out loud, but we think it, and in every corner of our lives it’s how the world operates.

Mercy is earned; mercy is deserved; mercy is limited. Our kids are rewarded for doing good and punished for doing bad. Their coaches put them on the field if they can run or throw a ball but bench them if they can’t. People get pay raises for working harder and better than others, and they get nothing for being average.

When someone in the church makes a mistake; when the pastor makes a mistake, an elder, a board member, mercy is too often the last thing on our minds, and far too often payback is driving the conversation.

Mercy is as foreign to us as a planet in another galaxy. And yet we exist and breathe and move; we have our being because of true and pure mercy.

Today is called Misericordia Domini Sunday, or “the mercies of God” Sunday, and we see God’s mercy so clearly in our readings.

But God’s mercy didn’t start in Acts, but really in Genesis. God shows us what His mercy is all about by making light in the darkness, by lifting up land from the seas, by planting trees and grass, by populating the earth and seas with creatures and the skies with birds, and by finally giving us dominion over His creation. Everything was very good; everything was perfect.

But misery loves company, and the devil’s rebellious misery and his being cast out of heaven led to a conversation in the garden which deceived Adam and Eve into thinking God was not as merciful as He seemed, that true mercy, true living was in disobedience.

And from that moment on, God’s mercy has been skewed and twisted. God’s Word has been scandalized by the wise and the foolish alike, so that the truth is exchanged for the lies of the father of lies, and rather than seeking the mercy of God, they seek their purpose and comfort in sinful living, and in the pursuit of each one trying to be his own god or goddess. Therefore, sinful man says, “no thank you” to God’s mercy.

And we Christians do the same. “I’ll show you mercy, but only if…” and fill in the blank. “I’ll forgive you once you…” fill in the blank. “I’ll love you as long as you…” fill in the blank. All our mercy and love and forgiveness come with conditions, rules, stipulations. Lo and behold, we think God’s the same way. In fact, there are entire Christian church bodies built on the idea that God’s mercy is limited; that God’s grace is finite. There are entire church bodies built on the notion that God’s mercy is earned or that God’s grace must be ratified by a personal decision or commitment or dispositional change.

The devil never stops twisting and distorting the Word, the truth, because he can’t. It’s not in him to tell the truth, and because we have a nature of sin which embraces the lies of the devil, we have a very tough time knowing the truth amongst all the lies.

And to confuse people even more, the devil mixes into the mercy of God another great and deceptive lie, that God’s mercy is permissive, that God’s love affirms sin, that forgiveness is truly a celebration of the sinful nature. And likewise, entire church bodies are built on the idea that sin is good, that God’s mercy frees us to sin even more, and that His love means affirmation of sinful living.

We keep getting God’s mercy wrong because we do not abide in His Word. We do not abide in His Word because we still have a sinful nature within us which is crying out for the father of lies, that ancient serpent who brought sin into the world.

Saul was a slave to these lies. He zealously believed in Talmudic, Rabbinical Judaism, the same Judaism that exists today by the way, and he believed it so much so that he persecuted and murdered Jewish Christian converts thinking he was doing God a favor. According to Talmudic teaching, Saul thought that the Lord’s mercy was earned, that by keeping the 618 laws, the Mitzvot, that it would make God merciful toward His people and not wipe them out once again by a foreign invading force such as the Babylonians or Seleucids or Romans.

And in the middle of one of Saul’s persecution tirades, God showed His true mercy to this miserable man. Jesus had every right to come down on that day where Saul and his men were travelling to Damascus and destroy them. But instead, Jesus showed His mercy by saving Saul from his hypocrisy and blindness, forgiving him of his sins in baptism, and putting him on a new road, one that led from Damascus to the Gentiles with the message of peace and salvation to those whom the Jews despised.

And Jesus showed His mercy to another of His disciples. In the Gospel reading, the disciple who denied Jesus three times as Jesus was being whipped and spat upon by the Sanhedrin and the Romans, Peter sat with Jesus eating fish for breakfast, and Jesus forgives him and ordains him to be one of the most influential apostles, overseeing the church in Jerusalem, and preaching the very first sermon that led to the conversion of 3,000 people. Peter was so joyfully dependent on the graciousness and mercies of God that, even when he faced his own martyrdom, he refused to be crucified as His Lord was crucified but instead requested to be crucified upside-down because he did not consider himself worthy of such a righteous death as His Lord’s.

And what we learn in our second reading today, in Revelation, is that God’s mercy, the mercy that He showed Adam and Eve who brought sin into the world, the mercy that He showed a murderer and persecutor named Saul, and the mercy He showed a denier named Peter, that His mercy is still with us today. Our Lord is worthy to open the seals because He has triumphed over sin, death, and the devil. His mercy is so complete and undefiled by the lies of Satan, that not even the threat of death on a cross would deter Him from His saving and forgiving work.

The Lamb who was slain has begun His reign. And His reign is a rule of mercy and forgiveness. We don’t deserve it, we can’t earn it, we can’t even choose it or make ourselves right for it. It is completely, fully gift, unearned, undeserved, and comes without limits, this mercy and grace of God for His people.

But we must be aware of our Lord’s warning concerning His mercy. For the devil still prowls around and seeks to distort the pure and perfect Gospel. Along with twisting God’s Word to make His mercy earned, or twisting God’s Word to make His mercy an excuse to sin, the devil also twists God’s Word so that we think we are strong enough on our own that we no longer need His mercy.

This is the error of Pietism and the doctrine of “total sanctification,” that with enough effort and devotion and work on our part, we can surpass the need for mercy because we no longer sin.

But we never surpass His mercy; we never grow up and out of His grace. This is why, in the confessional Lutheran church, we never stop preaching and teaching repentance. This is why we are taught from day one that repentance is a daily thing, not a one and done event. Every day we sin and like Paul, we are each the chief of sinners. And since we sin much, we must rely all the more on Jesus and His merciful forgiveness.

We don’t come to this rail and to this altar beating our chests and demanding our rights be obliged, but we come with humble hearts believing that not one gift we receive from our Lord is deserved, but that it is all given freely and received worthily by all who believe it is given and shed for their forgiveness, that it is His true body and blood, and that it is not just a thing we do, but this sacramental gift is one that God does for us.

And from this altar and the gifts He gives, we turn and we go out and we share His mercy and love with those around us, with our children and families, with our neighbors and friends, and with everyone, even the worst of sinners, and we follow our Lord, as sheep follow their Good Shepherd, wherever He leads because He is the Lord of Life, He is the tree of life that stood in the Garden and now stands before the throne of God bearing its 12 kinds of fruit in season. There is no life, no mercy, no love, no truth in any other lord, anyplace else in life, not in the gods we make for ourselves, or when we make ourselves into our own gods, not in the lieful teachings of the devil or in the religions or denominations that embrace those teachings. But only in Jesus and His death and resurrection is true, endless life and the ceaseless gift of mercy offered. Amen.